Thomas Babington Macaulay: a giant of the British Empire

Thomas Babington Macaulay was a giant of the British Empire who was in many
ways the father of English as the global language of business it is today.
He was also responsible for the legal system which still holds sway in many
Commonwealth countries.

Macaulay drafted the Indian Penal Code, which was exported to British colonies throughout the empire and remains largely in force in many former colonies, including India, Nigeria, and Zimbabwe, todayPhoto: ALAMY

By Dean Nelson in New Delhi

9:00PM BST 27 Oct 2010

He was born in 1800, the son of Zachary Macaulay, a Scottish anti-slavery reformer who had served as governor of Sierra Leone.

At Cambridge he developed a reputation as a poet and essayist and at 30 was offered a seat in parliament where he made his name as a Whig reformer.

Despite being the beneficiary of a 'pocket borough', he played a key role in the passing of the Great Reform Act of 1832 which greatly reduced their number.

He travelled to India two years later when he was appointed to its Supreme Council and in 1838 convinced the Governor-General to introduce English to replace Persian and Sanskrit as the medium of education in schools from grade six onwards. The aim was to create an Anglicised English-speaking elite to act as a link between India's British rulers and the Indian masses.

He later drafted the Indian Penal Code, which was exported to British colonies throughout the empire and remains largely in force in many former colonies, including India, Nigeria, and Zimbabwe, today.

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He returned to Britain in 1838 and later served as War Secretary and Paymaster-General before being made a peer, Baron Macaulay of Rothley, in 1857.

His work as a historian was no less controversial than his record in office. Macaulay's History of England was published in four volumes but criticised by contemporary thinkers, including Karl Marx who denounced him as "a systematic falsifier of history".

His legacy is the survival of the English legal system throughout the former Empire and the rise of English as a global language. In India, his introduction of English in schools is honoured among Dalits for the education and rise to prominence of Dr B. R Ambedkar, the 'untouchable' author of the Indian constitution.